“Which gives a lot, receive a lot.” Dutch proverb

On Saturday 30 April : two events, le Queen’s Day (the anniversary of the Queen, yes it is still a monarchy in the Netherlands, with a parliament. This is done by the anniversary date of the previous queen : Juliana, the current mother : Beatrix.) et l’arrivée de ma sœurette who joined us for a short week, just to see a bit of the country and the famous queen's party.

The latter takes place in all countries, it is a manifestation to do ! All Dutch and even strangers gather in the streets dressed in orange and feast all day. In the morning the people settled on a sidewalk portion (booked in advance) and sell everything and anything : a giant garage sale ! Scenes are mounted or already are on every street corner, stands with drinking and dining for all tastes ; and within hours the city's canals are filled with boats of all sizes, overworked men in orange and music. You have to walk to find the corner where they will spend the music you like, or maybe do yourself !

Small boats will become great

Ronald and Caroline in the orange crowd

Amsterdam has another face ! We come back to 23h, exhausted, some are already clean the streets and the next day the whole town is clean as if nothing had happened : organized Dutch !

We do not lose a moment because the journey time is shortened (des dates de concert prévues plus tôt pour Monsieur) and May 1, we leave to the assault of the Dutch countryside, north and fields of tulips which unfortunately have not all flowers, again. We discover through against the expertise of Dutch rolling through the "IJsselmeer" (the waters of the North Sea) on Markerwaarddijk, a dam built by human hands, which makes us arrive at a "polder" : a piece of land on the sea, again built by man : awesome. We go on another piece of land : it is a former island attached to the mainland they : sacred builders ! Nous roulons au travers du « Nationaal Park Weerrivven-Wieden » couvert de lacs où Monsieur venait faire de la voile lorsqu’il était petit ; we approach Koekange, where he lived 3 to 8 year old.

Back on Dutch roads

First tulips

The session will remember for Monday morning, and down to the south, en direction d’Ede où habitent beaucoup de membres de la famille de Monsieur. Family visit, Dutch dishes, Ede ballad and some new Dutch words in our vocabulary (pour ma sœur et moi !), we remain well a week or more in the pleasant surroundings of a forest of Lunteren. But the road is calling us and Wednesday afternoon we head south to join, Belgium and France. Again thank you !